NETWORKS

DIAL: Direct-Access Modems to Offer
Better Links to NYU-NET and the Web

by George Sadowsky

[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]

We're now going to start referring to this service as DIAL service (for Direct Internet Access Link) and the connection as a DIAL connection. The terms SLIP and PPP referred to very specific technical protocols that are evolving. Rather than change the name of the service and connection to track protocol evolution, we'd prefer to refer to the service by its functionality - that is to provide direct access.

This service has been immensely popular at NYU, as it has been at other colleges and universities, and as a result we had to start putting requests for new accounts on a waiting list starting last spring. The Student Senate expressed its concern about the situation, and as announced in President Oliva's April 6 letter to the university community, we will add 100 modems this fall. These modems will all be allocated to the new DIAL service. Furthermore, they will be attached directly to NYNEX's digital lines, which should result in clearer lines and fewer transmission problems and errors, since the modems themselves are digital.

Although it is not necessary to know it, the new DIAL service will rely on the PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). This protocol will not only carry IP (Internet Protocol) traffic, but will also permit linking Novell clients to Novell servers (by carrying IPX traffic) and allow Macintosh computers to link themselves over the network (through ARA, or Appletalk Remote Access). These new services are made possible by investing in a new generation of modems which are basically dial-up servers, powerful small computers, in themselves. This is an exciting new product, for which demand currently far exceeds supply. We're working with the supplier to ensure as early a delivery as possible for the equipment, and we expect to phase the modems into service shortly after their arrival. We'll have a new telephone number for these accounts, as well as new client software for users to run on their own computers to establish communication.

We now want to tell you about the approach we've worked out in using these new facilities and in assigning DIAL accounts for them:

• Faculty and staff accounts currently in place will be renewed. If you are a faculty member and need a DIAL account, your request will be accepted directly. If you are a staff member and want to get such an account, your request will be put in the queue based upon your supervisor's request in writing for such an account, stating that you need the account for your work.
• If you are a student in good standing at NYU and you already have an account, it will be renewed.
• DIAL accounts requested by instructors for course work will receive priority. Such requests should follow the procedures used for other course accounts. The ACF will announce to schools a deadline after which requests for DIAL accounts will no longer receive priority handling.
• During the fall term, new requests for DIAL accounts from students and staff members will be added to the existing waiting list.
• At the beginning of the fall term, and at a rate consistent with assuring priority for course accounts and a reasonable degree of response for all DIAL account holders, the ACF will assign accounts to people at the head of the list.
• During the fall semester, depending in part upon the level of excess demand for accounts, we will evaluate procedures in which schools sign off on the availability of non-course-related accounts for their students.

Posted 15 October 1995. Revised 30 January 2004.